Bottom Line: Don’t assume that first reports of violence/racism are accurate. Get the full facts before accepting what happened. The “Minion Media” agenda demands that they make the claims. Follow up reports optional.

There’s an ominous new phenomenon in the United States and it is fear of our government. The world is being turned upside down by the progressive and ever more authoritarian Obama administration. The double tragedy is that as we begin to fear the federal government here at home, our enemies have begun to laugh at us abroad.

We should be feared by oppressive regimes such as North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China, but instead they realize that they can effectively operate throughout the world without American opposition. In a similar tragedy, there are many that are breaking the laws here in America that also no longer fear the United States. Illegal aliens, who broke our immigration laws freely to come here, roam across the United States without fear that they will be held accountable for breaking those laws. Not only are they no longer afraid, but they are even emboldened. In rising numbers, they demand things from our government and the American people. Despite promises to the contrary, illegal aliens are actively being sought by Covered California to sign up for Obama care, a program that legally they cannot participate in. As an aside, I wonder how many of the enrollees that the Obama administration reports are actually illegals who should not be signing up at all? We will probably never know. Even if the government does, they certainly won’t tell us. And that brings us back to fear.

Those of us who are American citizens have seen the erosion of our God given liberties and our protection under the Constitution. We now have reason to fear the federal government! From IRS intimidation, proposals of new regulations that would institutionalize those intimidations and crush free speech, suggestions of FCC meddling in what stories the media is able to present, each day brings new examples of why we have reason to fear our government. How long will this go on? How many more liberties will we lose? Is there a turning point where the American people will stand up with one united voice and say enough? We all need to pray that the path President Obama and the Democrat Party put us on is reversible. We all need to pray that the Republican Party will stand against it and not surrender as they often do.

Since its inception the United States of America has been the single greatest defender of and hope for liberty here and around the world. America’s form of government is the “exception” in the history of mankind. I pray, as should you, that American “exceptionalism” doesn’t perish under this growing cloud of authoritarianism, intimidation and fear.

As if the mainstream media wasn’t partisan enough, there appears to be a new and even more extreme series of stories coming out that follow the lying lead of major Democrats. These are stories that aren’t just slanted or biased in the progressive direction, but are outright lies disguised as news stories. Let’s take two examples.

First the recent New York Times story claiming that a video was responsible for the four Americans murdered in Benghazi. The absurdity of that claim, which was first concocted and spread by president Obama, Hillary Clinton and Democrats for nearly a month after the attack on 11 September, 2012 was proven false. Not only false, but it was shown to be an absolute smokescreen, an apparent cover-up to protect the administration and Hillary Clinton. The second example involves an AP story, which claims that Obama care will not impact your job, your hours or your ability to keep them. How that claim can be made is stunning. Not only is it inaccurate, but it flies in the face of people across this country who already lost their jobs or had their hours cut to part-time due to Obama care. (Since I first posted this blog, the CBO released a report that highlights the terrible effects that Obama care will have on employment.)

Given the brazen nature of these stories, one has to ask if this is a new tactic? Has the media decided that they must engage in an entirely new level of deception to camouflage the progressive agenda and provide cover for Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, etc.?

These new types of stories come at the same time that another very disturbing progressive tactic may be surfacing. Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative filmmaker, was just brought up on campaign finance charges in the state of New York. At the same time, conservative activist James O’Keefe is claiming that NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo is targeting his organization with intimidation, similar to how the IRS went after conservative groups, and may still be at it. As an aside, the IRS is now trying to change policy in order to institutionalize their ability to intimidate in the future as they did to conservative groups since Obama took office.

As a retired member of the military, we used to proudly state that although we might disagree with what you have to say, we would defend with our lives you’re right to say it. Is this belief no longer alive in America? Have we entered a new era of governmental intrusion and intimidation? Has the left now taken so much power and become so brazen as to believe that they can wantonly target and destroy and potentially even imprison those that have the courage to dissent?

– This country needs to wake up! Americans open your eyes!

Without freedom of speech, without the ability to speak one’s mind free from governmental reprisal, we are headed down the road to authoritarianism, and that path is a one-way street!

Most famously spoken by Spock as the reason that he gave up his life to save the Enterprise and her crew in “The Wrath of Khan”.

The Progressive philosophy in America turns this philosophy on its head:

“The needs of the Progressive Agenda outweigh the needs of the many, few or one”.

Recent American history is full of examples where a few progressives enact their agenda over the objections of the American People.

We were all told that 30 Million Americans didn’t have health insurance, so we “needed” Obamacare so that they could get it. But the law is causing between 80 and 120 Million Americans to either lose their health insurance or have it greatly changed. Considering the VA as an example of “Single Payer” a.k.a. socialized medicine, our health care system is being compromised to provide a piece of paper, insurance policy. When that happens, we all lose.

Immigration reform, as stated by all of its proponents, is intended to bring approximately 15 million illegal aliens out of the shadows, despite the fact that the majority of Americans don’t want them given amnesty.

The holy union of “Marriage”, the foundation of the family, has been redefined to suit the less than 3% of Americans who are gay, despite the 97% of Americans who aren’t. Equal treatment under the law is one discussion, redefinition of marriage is another.

Obamacare forces religious organizations to pay for employee contraception and abortions despite them both going against organizational religious beliefs.

One person complained about the United States Air Force Academy’s honor code, which included the words “So Help Me God”. Those words were made optional as a result.

Secularization of America, despite the deep Christian heritage of America.

The above list is far from complete. From the Progressive’s perspective, only their agenda matters, all else appears expendable.

Update:

– NY Senator Chuck Schumer proved the progressive philosophy: “The third-ranking Senate Democrat noted that just about 5 percent of registered voters in the United States lacked health insurance before the implementation of the law, arguing that to focus on a problem affecting such “a small percentage of the electoral made no political sense.”

Barack Obama once told “Joe the Plumber” that his goal as president was wealth redistribution. President Obama is sadly making good on his promise, and it is crushing to young workers, one of his strongest support groups. Their typically meager incomes are being hit on multiple new redistributive fronts.

The most visible is due to the ever mounting national debt. Just like an individual must pay off their maxed out credit card, the interest on the debt must be paid, but by this time by taxpayers. The size of that interest payment is growing larger each year.

Debt Interest vs Defense Budget

Past OMB analysis projected that the annual cost for these payments would exceed the Department of Defense budget in the 2017 time frame, and grows rapidly from there. In addition to the interest, President Obama and the Democrat Senate continues to spend like drunken sailors (my apologies to drunken sailors for the comparison) and further increase the magnitude of the debt, and interest payments. Young American workers are enslaved to this debt and will likely work their entire lives under high tax rates and never see it paid off.

Another massive cause of wealth redistribution is from Obama Care. As in the case of Social Security, money is taxed from the young and throughout their lives will be used to offset the much higher health premium costs of the elderly.

“The Average Cost Of Single Coverage Premiums Has Increased By $1,180, From $4,704 To $5,884, A 25 Percent Increase.”Kaiser Family Foundation. Those costs will go to cover the premiums of the elderly, and constitute another wealth transfer. Given that Obama Care is unsustainable, as is social security in its current form, the likelihood that any of this money will come back to them in the future is extremely remote.

As if Obama Care wasn’t bad enough, along comes immigration reform. The Senate Bill, recently passed, should it become law, would cause employers to hire once “illegal immigrants” over American Citizens and legal immigrants. Obama Care penalties and requirements would not apply to illegal immigrants once the bill becomes law. Unbelievably, they would exist outside the scope of Obama Care. As such, it would be cheaper for businesses to hire these workers, effectively redistributing their wealth to people who broke the law to enter the United States. Young workers, new to the work force, are most at risk of losing opportunities since older workers have much greater skill sets, work histories and are already well established in the labor force.

Sadly, Democrats aren’t satisfied to just redistribute wealth within the United States. They have long supported doing the same thing at an international level. Wealth transfers from the US as a result of the Global Warming hoax is the first one, and easiest to prevent.

The pattern is clear, take from the young, and redistribute, redistribute, redistribute!

Magicians use sleight of hand and miss-direction to confuse their audiences and create illusions of performing “magic”. Progressive politicians have long used a similar technique, or “sleight of mouth”, to confuse voters and create the illusion that they and their progressive policies are effective despite the ever mounting historic evidence that conclusively proves otherwise.

One of the most frequently used “sleight of mouth” techniques is to sell a policy by only discussing the first level of impact. Henry Hazlitt, in his brilliant, must read, book Economics in One Lesson described a similar economics fallacy this way:

“The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups; what is seen, and what is not readily seen. Nine-tenths of the economic fallacies that are working such dreadful harm in the world today are the result of ignoring this lesson. Those fallacies all stem from one of two central fallacies, or both: that of looking only at the immediate consequences of an act or proposal, and that of looking at the consequences only for a particular group to the neglect of other groups.”

You can’t swing a dead cat in Washington without hitting one of these fallacies in action. A few examples, which happen either through ignorance, or malice of intent include:

Obama care (Nancy Pelosi’s statement that we have to pass it to find out what’s in it).

Raising the minimum wage (second order effects: results in fewer jobs and inflation).

Putting coal mines out of business to reduce carbon emissions (higher prices for electricity, and higher prices for products).

No need to drill in ANWR since we won’t get the oil for 5 years (but after five years we WILL have that oil flowing for decades and be less dependent on foreign oil).

Government spending creates jobs (government spending requires taxes which would have created at least as many and likely more jobs if not taken from people and companies for government use).

Never accept the first order of effects of any policy as the final answer. Look deeper to see what the logical second, third and fourth order effects are. To quote Rafiki from the Lion King, “Look Haaarder”! When the analysis looks this deep, most policy proposals will stop smelling like roses and start smelling more like rotten eggs.

Something is going on with ammunition in America that defies the Law of Supply and Demand. This article, from CBS4 in Pompano Beach, FL has a very ominous element. Itstates

“Ammunition sellers and manufacturers say there’s been a run on bullets and they can’t keep their shelves stocked.”

The article quotes Jeff Dillard who runs the National Armory in Pompano as saying

“We paid five times the price we would normally pay,” he said, adding that “it isn’t just ammunition running low, he can’t even get the parts to make bullets.”

The shortage of ammunition has been going on for many months. The Law of Supply and demand explains why the cost for ammunition has gone up, but it defies the normal progression of supply and demand that manufacturers are not able to increase their ammunition production in order to rake in the cash from the public’s insatiable demand. Not only is supply not going up, but quoting the report,

“Ammunition manufacturer Andy Delatorre says can hardly keep up with ammunition orders, but the shortage on parts has hurt his business so much he had to lay off four people last month. We have had to shut down 50 percent of manufacturing process. People are out on street without jobs right now. We just can’t find enough raw material,” he said.

Again, the Law of Supply and Demand should kick in with parts and raw material production increasing to rake in the cash from the ammunition manufacturers’ insatiable demand for supplies.

Why is this not happening? What is going on that is breaking the cycle of supply increasing to meet demand? Not only is this not occurring, but if manufactures like Andy Delatorre are actually laying people off and having to cut production in the face of overwhelming demand, then we have a reduction in production, despite the overwhelming demand. This flies in the face of Supply and Demand and a free market economy. Why? I don’t hear the question getting asked, and it certainly wasn’t asked in the article. Are there activities going on below the surface that we don’t see which are blowing up one of the fundamental laws of economics?

There are many stories documenting that the Department of Homeland Security is buying up massive amounts of ammunition. Are they also buying up raw materials? Is some other federal department hampering the ramp up and flow of raw materials to ammunition manufacturers? It may not have anything to do with the federal government, or new executive measures designed to curb firearm usage, but the media should be asking these questions. Sadly, I’ve not seen any stories looking into it.